In September, I photographed the shots that would be used for the NC State men’s basketball poster. Chris Alston in marketing and promotions wanted to have action photos of the players mirroring action photos of players from the ’83 team. 2008 marks the 25th anniversary of the national championship team with Coach Jim Valvano.
The players were given a copy of the photo by Chris of the ’83 player they were going to emulate while I set up the lights to strobe the court. For each player, I met quickly with him to look at the photo with him and discuss strategies to getting the right shot. We took three or four photos and compared what I had on the camera vs. the photo. Usually I needed to talk with the player again to have him move his angle or hands and retry. For the most part, the photos came out pretty good. The poses were not perfectly the same, but given the time pressures we had, I though it was a pretty solid job.
Kudos to Chris Alston and staff for coming up with this idea. I thought it was a really creative way to remember the the ’83 team. Thanks to the players too. They were eager to do the best they could to honor the ’83 players and do the best job possible. They were patient and accommodating.
Below is the poster. The ’83 player is in B+W behind the current player.
